From Winter Stillness to Spring Renewal

I hope you’ve had a promising start to the year and it’s unfolding with gentleness and ease.

This is my first letter of 2026, later than planned. I’m rarely ill, and it’s been years since I’ve been caught out, but following Christmas, I was well and truly floored by a nasty virus and persistent cough. It was harsh and inflexible, my body clearly asking for attention, to be stripped back and tended to what is essential.

Ayurvedically inspired yin and restorative yoga became my practice of choice. Characterised by little to no movement, yet relaxing into a deeper inner release, encouraging lymphatic circulation and allowing tissues to release what had become stuck and stagnant.

In Ayurveda, the immune system is understood as the body’s intelligence. The virus took as long as it took, but yoga helped me stay in relationship with my body and gently open areas where I could. It was subtle yet deep work, the kind that can only really be felt when we slow down enough to listen.

I know others have been hit hard too. If this has been you, whether struck by illness, pain, or loss, may you slow down enough to stay in relationship with your body, resting when you can without judgement or guilt. It’s a delicate balancing act to recognise and respond to signs and signals that we’re often conditioned to ignore. When we can make space for what wants to emerge, it allows us to heal and participate in life not from fear or habit, or pushing through or collapsing, but from steadiness and choice.

This poem feels especially resonant at this time of year. It speaks to what many of us may be feeling right now:

There’s a quiet season in healing
where you’re no longer who you were —
but not yet who you’re becoming.
Nothing feels clear.
Everything feels tender.
This in-between isn’t a pause.
It’s a passage —
one that builds strength not by rushing forward,
but by asking you to stay present with the unknown.

— Valarie Kaur

If you’d like to join me for spring yoga and self-care in Blausee, Switzerland, the weekend before Spring Equinox, will be a perfect time to connect with the promise of spring. Together we’ll create stability while encouraging fluidity. We’ll detox the sluggishness and heaviness of winter and balance our inner and outer conditions to meet the seasonal change, release, and renewal.

Please let me know your interest by mid-February. Feel free to share with anyone who could benefit or may be interested.

I look forward to sharing this time with you.

Karen x